Plant Family
Apiaceae
Apium graveolens
Photo by: JAMES H. SCHUTTE
Plant Common Name
Celery
General Description
Celery is a vegetable that's taken for granted. It's cheap in the store, so most don't bother growing it, but it is an easy highly garden-worthy crop.
Grown for its yummy crisp fleshy leaf stems (petioles) and fragrant seeds, celery originates from Europe, northern Africa, India and Asia. It has been cultivated since ancient times and is a staple herb in many dishes across the world. In the United States it flavors our Thanksgiving stuffing, is the favorite compliment to buffalo wings and every good bloody Mary is seasoned with a little celery salt and a crisp stalk.
Celery has long fleshy green leaf stems topped with a compound cluster of flattened, deep green incised leaves. It is raised and harvested as an annual, but if left to its own devises it will grow as a biennial. In the second year it produces large umbrella-like clusters (umbels) of creamy white flowers that produce dry fruits filled with small fragrant seeds.
Like most vegetables celery is sun-loving but favors climates where summers are cool. Too much heat leads to bitter-tasting celery. It grows best in moist, deep, fertile, organic-rich, slightly alkaline soil. Too little water will yield dry stringy stalks. Older varieties need to be blanched, meaning soil must be burmed along the base of the plants to keep the petioles light, sweet and crisp. Newer varieties are self-blanching and most are also stringless.
Sow celery in early spring, but protect it from hard frost. It is generally ready for harvest in 85 to 120 harvest days. To harvest, cut the whole plant from the base along the soil line. Individual stalks may also be cut if you prefer to slowly harvest your celery. In climates with mild winters it can be grown as a winter vegetable.